Children's author Margaret Mahy gives up car after DWI conviction

Margaret Mahy, whose children's books are read in and far from her native New Zealand, has decided to do without a car following her drunken driving conviction.

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Mahy, 72, appeared in court in Christchurch Wednesday, where a judge suspended her driver's license for six months and fined her, the New Zealand Herald reported. A spokeswoman described the April crash in which Mahy struck a parked car as an isolated incident in what had been a "clean and blameless record."

The Herald said Mahy, who lives in Governor's Bay near Christchurch, has made arrangements for transport that do not involve putting herself behind the wheel.

Mahy is the author of almost 50 books -- including "The Lion in the Meadow,""The Seven Chinese Brothers" and "The Man Whose Mother Was a Pirate." She has received the Hans Christian Andersen Award, the British Carnegie Medal and the Order of New Zealand, and a children's literature award in New Zealand is named after her.